Monthly Archives: January 2022

Snowblower Arrived

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I concede that I will likely not use this very often, but I want to be ready when I do need it. The driveway is 1/2 mile long and if it isn’t cleared there is a valid safety concerns if 911 ever had to get to the house.

I purchased a WoodMax SB-72, a 72″ wide PTO driven blower made in Buffalo, NY. Here is the link: https://www.woodmaxx.com/product/woodmaxx-sb-72/

Delivery company said it was going to arrive last Friday but of course it didn’t arrive until after the storm. Trucking company left it on the pallet at the gate. The package weighs in at almost 1000 pounds so in addition to the pallet forks I put on my bush hog for some counterbalance weight.

By the time I was done I had move three front attachments and two rear attachments in order to get at everything I needed and put the tractor back into snow clearing mode. With a strong northwest wind blowing I’ll wait a day or two to assemble this beast.

  • This blower is built like a tank.
  • Final heft to the barn.

Burn Baby, Burn!

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Just as the snow started I started lighting up the four piles of brush. Three of them really burned well, the fourth not so much. I called the county EMS first to notify them in case any neighbors started calling 911. Three of the piles were mostly cedar trees and really burned well, after I splashed them with a bunch of diesel. Aside from making sure the fires don’t get out of control, the biggest task with brush piles this big is constantly pushing the burning pieces into an ever smaller pile to keep things nice and hot and maintain the burn. Even though it was snowing quite heavily and then ended up raining the piles were still smoking the next morning. I spent all day pushing the piles up. Temperature outside was 18f most of the day and by evening I was spent.

  • Here we go!
  • The maple tree on the far side may have gotten singed
  • I like to say a scene from the civil war in this area.
  • Still hot

The Clock is Here

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My Mother & Father bought this USMMA commemorative clock in December of 1985, the year I graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Pt, NY. Over the years my Dad always told me from time to time; “when we go to ‘boot hill’, I want you to have this clock“. I always replied, “OK Dad”, thinking that day would never come. Well, they aren’t in ‘boot hill’ but they are both in memory care with dementia. Me and the brothers went through their home over the past few weeks and today we all met to resolve who gets what and to start removing items.

The clock is here at the farm now. It seems to run fine and keep time but the chimes aren’t working properly, I’ll get a local clock expert to come out and give it a tune-up,

What a depressing day.

USMMA Commemorative Clock

Almost Four Days w/o Power

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We got somewhere between 12-16″ of snow on Monday, honestly I was NOT expecting it. Didn’t bother to prep the attachments on the tractor (loader on the front, back blade on the rear), didn’t verify snow blower, didn’t get the snow shovels ready, didn’t make sure alternative heating fuel was full (kerosene and petroleum equipment), didn’t fill up gas cans, etc. Well it all went south when the power went out at 8:52am on Monday. Roads were pretty much impassable the rest of the day due to the heavy snow, but mostly due to a massive quantity of downed trees. People and farmers like us had to call heavy equipment transportation.

Driving snow that was very sticky

When the snow stopped around 2pm I prepped the tractor and started working on the driveway. Below was my first pass looking back from the gate.

Half mile driveway

I finished the driveway at dark, enough to allow a non-4wd vehicle to make it. Temperatures went down to 11f that night and with the ground still warm and ice fog could be seen rising in the bottoms at sunset. No power, but the steam generator we had installed for the farm in September was WELL worth it, powers everything with ease.

Ice fog rising in the bottoms

Here are a few pictures of the roads when we got out to help some folks on Tuesday and a short video on Zoar road..

Trees down across the roads everywhere